Another excuse for more failures:-)

[Rex Jones]

That is very arguable with the best engineers like Tesla etc.

[Rex Jones]

Because they did Office for the Mac and presumably hope it will continue to be used on Macs.

[newshound]

And university. Less than half the physicists had access to a computer. No pocket calculators (even four function) until the 70's.

[Tim Streater]

In which case, why bother with a read-only version?

[Vir Campestris]

I did question one. First I automatically moved my mouse across for a spreadsheet... then slapped my wrists. :)

It took me a couple of minutes, no more than that. But I managed to slip a decimal point somewhere :( I daresay under exam conditions I'd take more care. Noticing that there are a lot of common factors helps.

I'm going to retire in April, and was just discussing this with my colleagues. I know _exactly_ where I was on 11th July 1969 - since my father was a professional pilot, and my mother's father was ex RFC flying is in the blood - but it turned out only one of my colleagues was alive at the time. And he was in a cot!

Andy

[Rex Jones]

For the same reason they had it for Win, so those who had not bought Office could read documents prepared with Word.

[Fredxx]

On re-reading I can see that.

[Colin Bignell]

I remember the Queen's Coronation.

[Steve Walker]

As my teachers used to say, "Always read the question!" ;)

[Colin Bignell]

My first pocket calculator was a Commodore US*4, four function + memory, which my father bought for me while in the States. That would have been very early 1970s. He put it on company expenses, as it cost about £60 at the time.

[Tim+]

Our first calculators at school were all hand cranked, then we got fancy electronic ones with reverse Polish notation.

Tell kids today that you used to have to X + Y -= to subtract Y from X and they won?t believe you. ;-)

Tim

[The Natural Philosopher]

THE Calculus, please...!!

[Tim Streater]

I remember getting very wet that day, in Hyde Park. A nice policeman sheltered me under his cape and gave me Spangles.

I remember the Korean war - just. But I did somehow end up with the impression that Korea was in the middle of China.

[Robin]

memories of HP-35 are

X Enter Y

+

[Robin]

a difference of infinitesimal importance in modern English

[Robin]

or, cough, even

X Enter Y

-

[Jack Harry Teesdale]

Question 2 seems somewhat easier, i calculate 3.411 mph and 95 feet radius BICBW!

[Colin Bignell]

The US*4 was nominally a pocket calculator, although you needed quite a big pocket. Some years before that I had worked as in import/export clerk and there we used hand cranked calculators, but they were desktop machines.

One of my colleagues there had something like this, but for £sd, rather than feet and inches:

I'm not sure I believed reverse Polish notation at the time :-)

[Robin]

That's walking speed, not running!

And you'd have been marked down even if your sums were right 'cos the question calls for "three significant figures", not 3 decimal places.

[Harry Bloomfield Esq]

I didn't disagree with you..